May 4

May 4 is the 125th day of the year, and the American record for it runs from 1776 to 1989 — a span of 213 years. The entry that anchors it: American Revolution, 1776.

In the years around independence, the date turns political. In 1776, American Revolution — the Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations became the first of the Thirteen Colonies to renounce its allegiance to the British Crown.

In the postwar nineteenth century the date tracks a nation rebuilding. In 1886, Haymarket affair — in Chicago, United States, a homemade bomb is thrown at police officers trying to break up a labor rally, killing one officer. Ensuing gunfire leads to the deaths of a further seven officers and four civilians.

In the first half of the twentieth century the date turns technological. In 1904, the United States begins construction of the Panama Canal. Then, in 1932, Having been incarcerated at the Cook County Jail since his sentencing on October 24, 1931, mobster Al Capone is transferred to the federal penitentiary in Atlanta after the U.S. Supreme Court denies his appeal for conviction of tax evasion. Ten years on, in 1942, World War II — the Battle of the Coral Sea begins with an attack by aircraft from the United States aircraft carrier USS Yorktown on Japanese naval forces at Tulagi Island in the Solomon Islands. The Japanese forces had invaded Tulagi the day before.

The postwar entries show a nation both expanding and contesting itself. In 1946, in San Francisco Bay, U.S. Marines from the nearby Treasure Island Naval Base stop a two-day riot at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. Five people are killed in the riot. Then, in 1970, Kent State shootings — the Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the Cambodian Campaign of the United States and South Vietnam. Then, in 1989, Iran–Contra affair — Former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges; the convictions are later overturned on appeal.

The date is also a birthday. Among the Americans born on May 4: John Brooks (1752), American soldier and politician, 11th Governor of Massachusetts; Horace Mann (1796), American educator and politician; William Pennington (1796), American lawyer and politician, 13th Governor of New Jersey, 23rd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives; William H. Prescott (1796), American historian and scholar; and Julia Gardiner Tyler (1820), American wife of John Tyler, 11th First Lady of the United States.

May 4 is also a date of endings. Among the Americans who died on it: Matthew Tilghman (1790), American politician; Samuel Dexter (1816), American lawyer and politician, 4th United States Secretary of War, 3rd United States Secretary of the Treasury; Edward Clark (1880), American lawyer and politician, 8th Governor of Texas; and Nettie Stevens (1912), American geneticist credited with discovering sex chromosomes.

The date carries formal observance as well — Bird Day (United States) and Dave Brubeck Day (United States). 8 entries, 213 years, one square on the calendar. May 4 is a reminder that history is experienced as an ordinary day before it is remembered as a date.